I don't recommend the edgy upgrade

[martinbriscoe]

My advice to visitors is DONT UPGRADE TO EDGY YET - I dont think its ready.

I know this may anger many but a scan of these forums will show that hundreds perhaps thousands of people are having problems and ending up with broken systems. I have upgraded - Its taken several hours and I have continuing problems - I have had a broken xserver, which means loose the screen, - I have fixed that but the update manager package is now reporting errors and tells me the installation has aborted and is unstable. So there is probably several hours work to sort that out.

I dont mind this, in fact its quite entertaining, as I dont mind solving software problems. But if your system is working ok in dapper and you dont like hassle and crashes then dont upgrade, its not worth the risk.

This all causes me to question the Ubuntu upgrade policy - do you really need to have such major upgrades every six months - why not have much more gentle incremental upgrades as software updates become available? Dapper works well, its popular it doesnt need a major upgrade why not just slowly introduce new developments as they come on stream? I would suggest that is a much safer solution.

Martin
UK

[frodon]

You know it's just because only the persons with problems post here ... we are a support forum.
Persons who don't have problems don't need to post, you get the point ?

Saying "if it don't works for me, it won't work for you" is pure speculation, i know many users who upgraded to edgy without any problems.

[MedivhX]

The main problem is: IT'S DEVELOPED ONLY 4 MONTHS!!!

[Mimsy]

My advice to visitors is DONT UPGRADE TO EDGY YET - I dont think its ready.

I know this may anger many but a scan of these forums will show that hundreds perhaps thousands of people are having problems and ending up with broken systems.

By that logic, no one should have installed Dapper either - a scan of these forums clearly showed that the system was too difficult to install and configure, far too buggy, and had too many hardware compatibility problems to be worth anyone's time.

:rolleyes:

/Mimsy

[bonzodog]

I am going to say this only once....

Edgy is called Edgy because they KNEW it would be a stage 1 devel release.
Mark himself said that even on release, it could possibly be quite unstable.
This is why shipit will continue with Dapper, the stable release. There is no edgy shipit.

ONLY use edgy if you don't mind the possibility of breakage. Ubuntu uses a 4 release/2 year devel cycle - every 4th relase will be the completely stable one.

Edgy was designed as a testing and development platform for new technologies, quite a few of which are still beta or even cvs/alpha. the next uber stable release will be edgy +3.

[PriceChild]

The main problem is: IT'S DEVELOPED ONLY 4 MONTHS!!!Personally i'm amazed at the brilliant job the devs have done in the time.

I think that Edgy is superior to Dapper in every little way.

Even with beryl and beta nvidia, its solid as a rock.

Pricey

[kingcharles1666]

I agree, there are already so many problems. And that is even without the automatic notification of a distribution upgrade!
If I remember correctly there were less (critical) problems when the upgrade from breezy to dapper took place (with notification)
And remember, the largest group of people upgrading now are the enthusiasts who can solve most basic problems themselves.

my advice, stick with dapper until feisty comes

[MedivhX]

Ohhhhhh God!!! For another year and a half!!! S**t!!! Why isn't it every second version???

[qalimas]

Ohhhhhh God!!! For another year and a half!!! S**t!!! Why isn't it every second version???

Well, you coudl wait *counts Vista delays* about 5 years for another "stable" version, and still not get close to useable ;)

[hotani]

Edgy installed just fine when doing it clean on my Dell desktop. That was after the upgrade from dapper hosed X leaving me at the CLI. The laptop went a little better, but I had to go repair a few packages before the installer would run. That involved scouring the forums and googling for a couple of hours to find the issue.

But the worst one? My desktop at home that was running happily along with dapper. Here's a couple of the issues:
1- generic kernel will not boot
2- 386 kernel boots but with one core of the dual core CPU, and broken GPU acceleration (glxgears hogs 100% CPU)
3- azureus package was broken, had to manually download and install from the site
4- rhythmbox hangs at 100% CPU when opened, then takes about 20 minutes before it is responsive. In other words, it is not usable.
5- while deleting some files from inside rhythmbox (send to trash), it deleted my entire music folder.

So yeah, stick with Dapper.

[damarten]

I just started with Ubuntu, I dont know anything about it other than I started with dapper and had issues with not being able to see the WiFi card AT ALL! Since I upgraded to Edgy I can now see the card and am able to trouble shoot it (as much as a beginner can :) )

[MedivhX]

Well, you coudl wait *counts Vista delays* about 5 years for another "stable" version, and still not get close to useable ;)

LOL!!! You're right at that!!!

[MetalMusicAddict]

Dont dist-upgrade to Edgy. Do a clean install. You could use bittorrent to get the .iso and install it faster than it would take to dist-upgrade.

[John.Michael.Kane]

The OP seems to only have had an xorg issue which could be user error ie bad editing of the file or bad driver install. If you need help ask for it.

All of you Veteran warty/breezy/dapper users should understand what mark,and the dev team has set out to do with these builds. you also should know not to run it as you main OS final or not.

Edgy is a testing platform end of story. It' not meant for joe new user I never used Linux before.

Something is broke ask for help/search the forum jump on #ubuntu on irc post a bug report on launchpad.

Complaining in the cafe does not get you help Does not get read by Dev's.

[prizrak]

Mark did say that Edgy was only for those who want to play around with latest and greatest. There is a reason why Dapper is LTS and Edgy is not.

[hkgonra]

I am going to say this only once....



ONLY use edgy if you don't mind the possibility of breakage.

I think you should rephrase that.

ONLY use a computer if you don't mind the possibility of breakage. ;)

[hotani]

Dont dist-upgrade to Edgy. Do a clean install. You could use bittorrent to get the .iso and install it faster than it would take to dist-upgrade.
This is good advice - but will take a while to get all those settings back. I cringe at the thought of having to redo my mythtv setup and remote - eeek! My clean install mentioned above went well, one dist-upgrade broke a lot of stuff while another went off without any problems other than I lost wifi, but I think that is an Edgy problem.

[Mimsy]

I've got my laptop set up to donwload and install over the day, while I'm at work, because I expected it to take a while. I have mental images of the files being stuck in very congested traffic situations in cables, shouting and cussing like impatient drivers when they are forced to slow down or even stop on the connector, due to accidents or construction.

But they are just going to have to put up with it. I like my settings the way they are. :)

/Mimsy

[hotani]

You'll need a script to click that EULA for the flash plugin. ;)

Mine sat on that for a couple of hours while I was out running errands yesterday. At least you'll get all the files downloaded though.

[raqball]

you also should know not to run it as you main OS final or not.

Agreed! And that is why I still have 6.06 on my laptop. I only use Ubuntu (no *******)


Edgy is a testing platform end of story. It' not meant for joe new user I never used Linux before.

Agree again! BUT does the average joe user understand that edgy is not stable? I would say not by the number of people posting help for very simple problems they encounter with edgy that they would not have if they used dapper

[Mimsy]

I left the laptop at home. I didn't say I left it alone. ;)

/Mimsy

[hotani]

Is that the official "button pusher" in your avatar pic? :lol:

[Mimsy]

No, that would be the Merciless Keyboard Slayer and Destroyer of the Wireless Mouse. Not to mention Fearless Explorer of Abandoned Cases, of course...

And there's two of us feeding her, and the other person works from a home office. :)

/Mimsy

[cnhzcy14]

exactly! what we want is just the updating applications! not the whole system! 6.06 is already good!

[Bezmotivnik]

I think that Edgy is superior to Dapper in every little way.

Not in functional wireless support. It's actually much worse, a non-starter.

[Perfect Storm]

But that people know before upgrading/installing edgy that it's a test platform....well if they borthered to read release notes and announcements.

[nickle]

Point taken that it is meant to be a testing platform. This I know because i have been using Ubuntu for a while.

BUT... where does it say this in the official release announcemnet? Yes perhaps if you click on and read the small print this may become apparent. Furthermore, even if it is a "testing platform" users should be warned about difficulties in up grading.
I have done a fresh install on a spare partition for a look-see and it seems to be working fine. Without having read this thread, I would have been tempted to upgrade.... hmmmm

For that reason I think the advice at the beginning of this thread is warrented

[sysop]

You know it's just because only the persons with problems post here ... we are a support forum.
Persons who don't have problems don't need to post, you get the point ?

Saying "if it don't works for me, it won't work for you" is pure speculation, i know many users who upgraded to edgy without any problems.

:mrgreen: I have had absolutely no problems and I'm running Desktop AMD 64. Everything works great, works faster, and just generally seems even more stable. Another wonderful release from the Ubuntu Team!!! Time for me to go donate. ;)

[macubergeek]

My advice to visitors is DONT UPGRADE TO EDGY YET - I dont think its ready.

I know this may anger many but a scan of these forums will show that hundreds perhaps thousands of people are having problems and ending up with broken systems. I have upgraded - Its taken several hours and I have continuing problems - I have had a broken xserver, which means loose the screen, - I have fixed that but the update manager package is now reporting errors and tells me the installation has aborted and is unstable. So there is probably several hours work to sort that out.


I was wondering about your xserver problem. When I upgraded, the box reboots to a black screen. I hit return and get a console, not gui login. I do Alt-F7 and see the graphical logon. I'm wondering why it dosn't boot into the graphical login screen. Did you have this problem? How did you fix it?

[The Mekon]

I read the warnings about Edgy being a test platform so I have made a careful staged transition.

First I installed it on our old Windows machine which is now just print server and scanner machine.

Edgy intalled very simply on a partion I had made available with my Gparted self booting CD.

After loading the updates (I have an RC1 live CD) I used Automatix to install all my favorites and began a couple of days testing which showed the system to be stable and OK for normal use.

I then ran the live CD on my main (purely Linux/Dapper) machine which failed to locate my wireless connection which was OK with the Dapper live CD and installed versions.

Not to be defeated I installed an old hard drive and installed Edgy on it. The installation updated Grub on my original drive and I can boot either Dapper or Edgy without problem.

Next I clicked on System/Administration/Networking and lo and behold there was my Wireless Network connection (D-Link GW510 with Atheros Chipset). A quick set up of my ESSID and WEP and I was connected to ADSL and was able to update the installation and load all my required additional programs.

Since the I have been using Edgy as my normal system without any problems except that the orignal Dapper hard disk is getting flaky and Grub occassionally fails to load. It is time to get some new hard drives both my present drives are nearly six year old!

Is the upgrade worth it? In my opinion probably yes if you really like playing and are prepared to back up all your data for when it could crash (I am still waiting and have Dapper still installed). If you just want a stable work horse stick with Dapper

[ember]

Well - Edgy is really a bit rough around the edges, the installer is a bit broken, fsck still checks my partitions at every startup and network-manager does not work, yet I say it is a fair release, especially if like bleeding edge software (like me ;)).

But as MetalMusicAddict pointed out - a clean install will save you from many troubles. If you do so, however, mind the installer that is a bit broken and better use the alternate install cd.

[steven8]

users should be warned about difficulties in up grading.

Actually, it did warn me. When I searched for upgrades, it showed me the Edgy was available. When I clicked on it, it gave me a very large written explanation of why I may want to stick with Dapper if it is running good for me. It told me about LTS for Dapper and so on. If user clicks Okay, without reading, then so be it.

I haven't upgrade yet, but I probably will this weekend. I am a total New User, but I do know that if Edgy is beyond me at the moment to handle, I will pop my Dapper liveCD back in, reformat and re-install.

No biggie.

[Mimsy]

I am a total New User, but I do know that if Edgy is beyond me at the moment to handle, I will pop my Dapper liveCD back in, reformat and re-install.

No biggie.

Exactly. That just the way I have been thinking, and I made very sure that I knew where my Dapper live CD was before I upgraded to Edgy. I haven't had a chance to experience a lot of Edgy yet, but so far I like it. I haven't seen any problems at all. *knocks on wooden desk*

/Mimsy

[~LoKe]

I've learned more from Edgy breakage than I ever have in Breezy/Dapper. I won't stop using it until Feisty Fawn's Knot is available.

[SolidAndShade]

I just upgraded to Edgy and it went fairly smoothly. However, the packages had to be installed in several steps. First I changed the repositories, selected "mark all upgrades" in synaptic and had it install all the new packages. However, many packages were left in the unconfigured state, and I had to apt-get install these packages one by one. Then I looked through the package lists and noticed many things were missing--nvidia-glx, gnome-core, gdm and other essential packages. I added these, added a few more, looked through the package list to make sure there was no more mission-critical stuff missing and rebooted the system. Now my system works fine, but it's obvious to me that updating through Synaptic doesn't work and you have to manually look through the list to make sure nothing is missing from your new install.

[TheMono]

I can't get over how good edgy is. More stable than Dapper on my PC and miles faster. Generally brilliant.

[vayu]

I've had problems with each upgrade starting from Hoary. It takes me at least a week before I tame things down. Then all is groovy.

It's funny that just because somethings available we feel the need to have it. I've had Win XP for years and it's still rock stable and lightning fast. I'm holding myself back from Edgy. Not because it's any worse or better than any of the previous releases, just because I have two children five and under and I don't have that much time right now.

I did try to dist-upgrade on my sons laptop, that borked it, he was bummed. After literally hours, I broke down and did a fresh install. That worked fine if you don't need X. It took me a day and a half off of work between the borked install, the fresh install and figuring out the unusual for me and that laptop (which has worked fine since Hoary) Xorg problem. It looks good so far, I don't really use it but he hasn't complained except that I forgot to install Tux-Paint. (That program rocks for kids!)

I've never had a computer that entirely just worked. The new Intel Mac Mini I have comes close, but everything on it costs money and while it always has the basic functionality, it often has not much more.

[Mimsy]

Now that I have played a bit more with Edgy, I discovered something that is very inconvenient: It doesn't recognise the wireless functions on my laptop, in fact, Edgy doesn't seem to realise they exist. I have to have wireless, so as I am typing this from my Windows desktop PC, Dapper is reinstalling on the laptop.

As Steven8 said, "no biggie". I expected there'd be problems, and though I'm kind of disappointed at this particular one I am not going to whine. I know that Dapper works on the laptop, and I have a live CD and current backups, which means it's easy to fix the problem.

Maybe in a couple of months Edgy will recognise my wireless? If not, no big deal. I can wait. :)

/Mimsy

[cborner]

Okay, the Edgy installer is really nice. The partition resizer worked FLAWLESSLY for me.

Also, I like the work they did towards a -common kernel, so users don't have to dink around and grab the 686 kernels anymore.

Also, the choice to go with FireFox 2.0 is a good one. Memory utilization (see "hogging") of the 2.0 browser is down about 30% in my informal testing.

In general, the UI is just a bit snappier compared to Dapper.

HOWEVER, the final install had a couple of really nasty oversights.

Like the Disk manager.

Present in the LiveCD, nonexistant in the install. Moreover, Edgy wouldn't mount my non-linux partitons. PERIOD. Even with editing /etc/fstab and a reboot it didn't come up.

I basically spent 8 hours troubleshooting it only to rip it out and reinstall Dapper, as I'm unfortunately still tethered to Windows for my job (Hey, I was young, I needed the money!) and have to share files back and forth.

I figure I'll give it a couple days/weeks so they can get a couple updates out and then try again.

[Johnsie]

I had the same problem that the poster of this topic had... It was very easy to fix:



sudo aptitude install xserver-xorg-video-savage



As you can see my card was a savage card. Doing this apt-getted the savage card driver.


To find out what driver YOU need to apt-get:



sudo dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xorg


Do all the autodetect stuff. You will see a screen with a list of possible drivers. It is usually a list of things like nividia,nv,s3,s3 virge, savage etc. Write down the one that was selected.

Then all you need to do is apt-get the driver as shown at the top of this post only replacing "savage" with whatever driver your need.

[Perfect Storm]

It's funny that just because somethings available we feel the need to have it.

Human behavior :mrgreen:

[glotz]

But that people know before upgrading/installing edgy that it's a test platform....well if they borthered to read release notes and announcements.
I beg to disagree here. Also a certain Matt Zimmerman would seem to
"With Ubuntu 6.10, we've made improvements across the board, both on the desktop where they're a visible part of the user experience, and in the underlying infrastructure where they improve performance and reliability for servers and desktops. The result is a system which is easier to use, faster, and more robust than ever. A great release in its own right, it will also be a solid base on which to build the next generation of Ubuntu features," said Matt Zimmerman, Ubuntu CTO.

I'm still on Dapper myself. I'm pretty fresh with Linux but slightly geeky. I was wondering if I should upgrade now. Yet undecided.

[hotani]

Now that I have played a bit more with Edgy, I discovered something that is very inconvenient: It doesn't recognise the wireless functions on my laptop...

Yep. Same here. My laptop no longer sees any wifi networks which would be a big problem if I was traveling. It worked fine in Dapper. Fortunately I don't need to go anywhere for a while so I may be able to wait this one out.

[Perfect Storm]

I beg to disagree here. Also a certain Matt Zimmerman would seem to

I'm still on Dapper myself. I'm pretty fresh with Linux but slightly geeky. I was wondering if I should upgrade now. Yet undecided.

In the light of 4 months of development I disagree Matt Zimmerman ;)
It's true alot of improvement have been made but it's not the same as stability.

[Mimsy]

Yep. Same here. My laptop no longer sees any wifi networks which would be a big problem if I was traveling.

I'm sorry, I was unclear. The situation is this: My laptop no longer knows that it has a wireless network card; it doesn't recognise the existence of the hardware. As a student who depends on the wireless campus network, this is a frustrating deal breaker for me.

Fortunately, since Dapper worked just fine, it's a temporary frustration. Dapper is now back on the laptop! :)

/Mimsy

[beameup]

Well someone is getting what they wanted. ](*,)

http://www.desktoplinux.com/news/NS3291004537.html

My edgy upgrade went well. I did a bit of reading and paid attention while upgrading from the CD.

[Bezmotivnik]

I discovered something that is very inconvenient: It doesn't recognise the wireless functions on my laptop, in fact, Edgy doesn't seem to realise they exist. I have to have wireless, so as I am typing this from my Windows desktop PC, Dapper is reinstalling on the laptop.
[...]
Maybe in a couple of months Edgy will recognise my wireless? If not, no big deal. I can wait. :)
Wireless is definitely an even worse problem in v6.10 than it was in v6.06. I tried fresh v6.10 installs with three or four different WiFi devices. Got nowhere at all. [-(

However, I discovered while grumpily re-installing v6.06 that my wireless actually installs and works under a few circumstances in that version, like in live mode and until the first reboot (http://www.ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=286542) after HD install. :rolleyes:

I'm pretty astonished, actually. Maybe there's a real chance I can get wireless to work in v6.06, at least!

[Daniel15]

I upgraded to Edgy yesterday, and it worked fine for me :) The only problem I'm having is that the getty's (terminals on CTRL+ALT+F1...F6) aren't working, and I'm not sure how to fix that.

My wireless works brilliantly in 6.10, just as it did in 6.06 (it's an Intel Pro Wireless 3945). Additionally, with the upgrade to Edgy, my laptop's SD card reader now works properly (I think it's due to the newer kernel) :D

[TheMono]

I heard there were a lot of problems with Atheros wireless in Edgy... I am, of course, an idiot, so I upgraded anyway... Worked perfectly. I'm slightly bemused.

[handy]

I did clean installs on 2 machines, one an old nVidia nForce motherboard the other spec's in my signature. Had not a problem at all with the old nForce. The only real problem with my main machine is the keyboard repeat is broken, to the point of having to turn it off?!

I will keep using Edgy on both machines, they are quicker, & apart from that 1 problem, everything else is at least as good. Except the Disk Manager should have stayed in Edgy!

The keyboard problem will go away in it's own time... :)

I feel sorry for all the wireless user's though, that problem will be around for ages I think. :(

[darrenrxm]

I did a clean install of edgy and it seems to work fine. Although I did have to edit xorg.conf to get it to a 85Hz refresh rate. Which I didn't have to do with breezy. But I think the hassle of setting it up is worth it just for the faster boot times.

[OffHand]

My dist-upgrade right before it reached the beta stage went almost perfectly.
I did had to reconfigure my x-server but that is about the only thing I ran into. Even all my settings and preferences were kept.
Learning moment: Not everyone experiences the same issues you had with upgrading. Actually I think this thread should be removed because it really doesn't add anything.

[Bezmotivnik]

I feel sorry for all the wireless user's though, that problem will be around for ages I think. :(
"Son of WinModem!" :mrgreen:

The unfortunate part is that there were apparent attempts at improvement in v6.10 -- they just didn't work with this device (or any other of my current wireless devices), which ALMOST works in v6.06. In fact, it works perfectly fine in the v6.06 "Live" CD mode, if you can believe that! :shock:

No, if Linux is to ever be taken seriously, the wireless problems are going to have to be sorted out. People aren't going to go back to Ethernet cables and lose the mobility they have with wireless just to run some kludgy Linux distro.

The Linux drivers are already out there, and have been for some time, so that Lame Linux Excuse #3c won't fly -- it's just the people developing Linux have made their integration a relatively low priority compared to flashy visuals and various other geek junk.

Wireless isn't sexy.

Wireless isn't a "shiny geek toy," as Shuttleworth calls the stuff the developers want to work on. They know how to eventually get their wireless working by twenty-eight deep config steps, so they don't see any problem.

[mattskr]

I upgraded to Edgy on my laptop on day 1 and it works without a hitch. The wireless works better than before (and I can now VPN with network manager!!!), so I have to DISAGREE with this topic, I recommend upgrading!

[chaosgeisterchen]

Egdy is a brilliant improvement for only 4 months of development. Look at them! Look what they moved in just 2 years! From 4.10 to 6.10 they changed more than Microsoft did from Windows 95 to XP. This is no bashing against Microsoft, it should only show that the guys of Ubuntu and the awesome community pushed the Free Desktop from underachievement to underestimation. And right now we are about to overtake the propietary desktops of the world... 2 years, remember.

[John T. Monkey]

It's clearly stated that Dapper will be supported for a while yet. You don't have to move, but by releasing the new versions every six months you get the choice, which you should have.

I've moved onto Edgy yesterday, and the installation process wasn't flawless, but the system itself is absolutely fine for me. If it emerges over time that it isn't, then I'd move back to Dapper when I need to.

The main thing is choice. I wouldn't necessarily recommend to any of my friends they would upgrade just for the sake of it, Dapper is still fine, but I'd recommend they think about it. (If only I could get them on Ubuntu in the first place!)

[Erunno]

I'm going back to Dapper on my notebook as Edgy is very unstable on it right now. I have lots of problems which I never encountered on Dapper before: Random freezes and wireless support is bad (I can't connect to my university network anymore).

Now the irony: I switched to Gentoo a couple of weeks ago just to give another approach to Linux a try and although I was using the testing branch to have access to bleeding edge software it was never as unstable as Edgy is now. I came back to Ubuntu because I couldn't get hibernate to work and I hoped to lessen the amount of administrative tasks required but now I really regret deleting Gentoo as it was rock solid otherwise and I'll probably have to surf the forums for solutions to my problems as I did when I still used Gentoo.

Once I have more time at my hands I'll probably go back to Gentoo (as a Gentoo installation can take a couple of days due to compilation of huge packages like X and KDE) as I don't want to be stuck with outdated packages on Dapper for the next year until another LTS release is finished.

Cheers,
Erunno

EDIT: I'm on Kubuntu 6.10 right now because for some unknown reason the forum software won't allow me to change my Ubuntu flavour in Konqueror.

[shining]

I'm going back to Dapper on my notebook as Edgy is very unstable on it right now. I have lots of problems which I never encountered on Dapper before: Random freezes and wireless support is bad (I can't connect to my university network anymore).


Did you at least check this problem was known (on launchpad and on forums), and if it isn't, report it. Otherwise how will it be ever fixed?
I didn't have any troubles with wireless on edgy.



Once I have more time at my hand I'll probably go back to Gentoo (as a Gentoo installation can take a couple of days due to compilation of huge packages like X and KDE) as I don't want to be stuck with outdated packages on Dapper for the next year until another LTS release is finished.


On gentoo, you also have to wait (compile time) for getting uptodate softwares. And the benefit is 0.
Having one person (the packager) compile for many users is a big win of time, energy, and power. Please please don't use gentoo (or any other source based distrib).

[Erunno]

Did you at least check this problem was known (on launchpad and on forums), and if it isn't, report it. Otherwise how will it be ever fixed?
I didn't have any troubles with wireless on edgy.

I don't want to sound unfriendly, but shall I search for "random freezes" and "wireless problems" on launchpad ? I switched to Kubuntu to fiddle less with the system and to make a solid bug report I'll have to wade through tons of log files. Right now it seems like I'll have to do the same amount of research without getting the Gentoo's benefits. :(


On gentoo, you also have to wait (compile time) for getting uptodate softwares. And the benefit is 0.
Having one person (the packager) compile for many users is a big win of time, energy, and power. Please please don't use gentoo (or any other source based distrib).

Not sure if you ever used Gentoo but I think the compile time problem is a rather common misconception in my opinion. Apart from the long installation major updates to big packages (glibc, gcc, X, KDE) are rather rare. If you set Portage to a high niceness level you'll be able to work on the computer while the compilation takes place or you can leave it running overnight. I'm not a ricer, I used sane compiler flags and I really doubt that I get a noticeable speed boost from self-compiling. I like the fact via USE flags I get a hand-tailored Linux with only the functionality I really need (plus, Gentoo is less picky about closed source codecs and drivers) and testing packages are commonly uptodate if you care about such things as I do.

Right now Edgy is a huge disappointment for me. As a distribution which touts itself as being ready to use without much hassle it takes up a lot of my time to get it running.

[shining]

I don't want to sound unfriendly, but shall I search for "random freezes" and "wireless problems" on launchpad ? I switched to Kubuntu to fiddle less with the system and to make a solid bug report I'll have to wade through tons of log files. Right now it seems like I'll have to do the same amount of research without getting the Gentoo's benefits. :(


So you are ok with spending time on gentoo, but not on ubuntu. That seems quite unfair to me. Gentoo's benefits are very negligible compared to the downsides of a source based distrib.



Not sure if you ever used Gentoo but I think the compile time problem is a rather common misconception in my opinion. Apart from the long installation major updates to big packages (glibc, gcc, X, KDE) are rather rare.


Well I prefer to have X and KDE uptodate rather than libcdio or util-linux.



If you set Portage to a high niceness level you'll be able to work on the computer while the compilation takes place or you can leave it running overnight.


Right, I forgot that letting the computer running overnight compiling packages is a great way to save energy.



I'm not a ricer, I used sane compiler flags and I really doubt that I get a noticeable speed boost from self-compiling. I like the fact via USE flags I get a hand-tailored Linux with only the functionality I really need (plus, Gentoo is less picky about closed source codecs and drivers) and testing packages are commonly uptodate if you care about such things as I do.


USE flags is indeed one benefit of using gentoo, but it's really very minor.
Firstly, the package maintainer generally choose very decent default.
Secondly, when an app is compiled with support for foo, you generally have the possibility to not use foo at runtime, and so there is 0 loss.
When there are configure options that do make a difference, the package are splitted into several ones.
Finally, there are maybe some features that you don't use today, but that you could use tomorrow (ipv6 for example, or gtk if you switch to gnome, qt if you switch to kde,...)

Keep in mind I'm not saying there are no benefits, just probably much less than you could think, since there are several way to fix these problems in a binary distrib.



Right now Edgy is a huge disappointment for me. As a distribution which touts itself as being ready to use without much hassle it takes up a lot of my time to get it running.

As far as I know, edgy was not meant to be a perfectly stable distrib (though it did quite well for me). But you are free to help and support it, or not.
That is, finding out what the issues are, why they exist, and whether they will be fixed with updates to edgy, or at the very least in the next release.

[eentonig]

My advice to visitors is DONT UPGRADE TO EDGY YET - I dont think its ready.

I know this may anger many but a scan of these forums will show that hundreds perhaps thousands of people are having problems and ending up with broken systems. I have upgraded - Its taken several hours and I have continuing problems - I have had a broken xserver, which means loose the screen, - I have fixed that but the update manager package is now reporting errors and tells me the installation has aborted and is unstable. So there is probably several hours work to sort that out.

I dont mind this, in fact its quite entertaining, as I dont mind solving software problems. But if your system is working ok in dapper and you dont like hassle and crashes then dont upgrade, its not worth the risk.

This all causes me to question the Ubuntu upgrade policy - do you really need to have such major upgrades every six months - why not have much more gentle incremental upgrades as software updates become available? Dapper works well, its popular it doesnt need a major upgrade why not just slowly introduce new developments as they come on stream? I would suggest that is a much safer solution.

Martin
UK

After redading your post, I decided to have a go and did the upgrade.
X didn't start afterwards. So reboot in safe (?) mode and "apt-get install xorg", I'm good to go again.

Only strange thing is, After my first boot into Edgy, the update manager asked me to do a dist-upgrade? Didn't I just did exactly that? This went fine btw.

As to why the upgrade policy? Dapper was the long term support release. If you're a company, don't upgrade to Edgy. If you like pc's generally and enjoy cutting edge technology. Why not.

[Gargamella]

me too i noticed my wireless device (usb one and an integrated chip on the laptop) which used to work perfectly on Dapper do not work at first boot as in Dapper but it is a mess to set them.

The usb wireless device in Windows needs drivers,in Dapper worked when plugged and in Edgy it doesn't..... the question is

WHY??

[eizo]

edgy prompts no root volume when doing menu partition unless you use the alter install cd.

[bruce89]

The main issue is the number of people using things like Automatix and EasyUbuntu to mess up their systems.

I gksudo "update-manager -c -d"'d a while (2 months?) ago, and it was flawless. I reinstalled anyway.

[reiki]

Edgy has some interesting things going for it. I have it on a spare physical hard drive and separate from my Dapper install, which, after several days of testing (and reinstalling Edgy twice because I screwed it up) will remain my primary OS. I don't think Edgy is INTENDED to be my primary OS. It's very fun though. I like a lot of things about it. But in the end when I want something I can count on I boot back to Dapper. I'm kinda thinking this is teh way it was intended to be seen. As teh "fun" Ubuntu... not the serious one.

Just my 2 cents. I know some folks have gone over to being evangelists and stuff over this, but at 54 years old.... hey.... it's a computer. :)

[prizrak]

I think I have a Linux angel watching over me. Two Edgy installs and both flawless. One was a dist-upgrade on a system with Dapper (and yes I did use Automatix, and beta Flash and Swiftfox) and it worked just fine not a single issue. For the hell of it install network-manager and turned wireless on (this laptop sits on a hardwired connection and has no use for wireless) and it works even sees some random network with 10% signal strength. Even Beryl is working beautifully with AIGLX despite a very crappy video card. The other system was a clean install and everything was recognized as well, except the tablet and bluetooth (which is normal Dapper couldn't either). I am also delighted to see MythTV in repos and newer Gaim (finally fixed the issue with it not remembering window sizes).

[ZylGadis]

What's the very crappy video card? I have a lappy with s3 unichrome that gets about 450fps in glxgears (Dapper). I've had no time over the past week, but on Wednesday I'll try Edgy on that (fingers crossed). I wonder if I'll be able to put Beryl on that unichrome, provided other things work, of course :)

[prizrak]

What's the very crappy video card? I have a lappy with s3 unichrome that gets about 450fps in glxgears (Dapper). I've had no time over the past week, but on Wednesday I'll try Edgy on that (fingers crossed). I wonder if I'll be able to put Beryl on that unichrome, provided other things work, of course :)
i855GM

[mips]

My Edgy experiences so far has been worse than the previous 2 releases.
Everything used to work out of the box and be stable.

With Edgy my Plantronics DSP headset is not working and things are not as stable.

Konqueror crashes occasionally, cannot shut down occasionally, system locks up on the odd occasion, my networking hangs and I have to restart it, Kde wallet seems to loose login details.

I'm sure I'll discover more problems as I go on.

I sometimes think that i should just whip out the dapper cd and re-install...

[Somenoob]

My main problem with it is that i can't upgrade to it. Tried it often, i won't install it from a CD since then i will have to reinstall a great number of programs.

[Neobuntu]

Egdy is a brilliant improvement for only 4 months of development. Look at them! Look what they moved in just 2 years! From 4.10 to 6.10 they changed more than Microsoft did from Windows 95 to XP. This is no bashing against Microsoft, it should only show that the guys of Ubuntu and the awesome community pushed the Free Desktop from underachievement to underestimation. And right now we are about to overtake the propietary desktops of the world... 2 years, remember.
__________________
simplicity is perfection

I whole heartedly agree with the effort, expertise and collaboration shown to get the advancements now evident in Edgy.

My concern is that "edginess" may root out needed "human beings".

Can we please remember that time saving ease of use (and that certainly includes dist-upgrades) is paramount?

[Bigbluecat]

I read the warnings and understood the risks. Wanted to play anyway.

Did a dist-upgrade from CDROM and it worked flawlessly.

The devs did a great job with Edgy in a very short amount of time. It's very stable even with Beryl running.

[WalmartSniperLX]

I wouldnt upgrade because my friend is begging me to (he did) and I must do the opposite

[Perfect Storm]

I wouldnt upgrade because my friend is begging me to (he did) and I must do the opposite


:confused:

I take it sarcasm :mrgreen:

[regeya]

I am going to say this only once....

Edgy is called Edgy because they KNEW it would be a stage 1 devel release.

(trimmed out the explanation of the release cycle--if you want to see it, scroll back, sorry.)

Thanks for the explanation, but no, I don't like the 'it's called Edgy for a reason' handwaving a darn bit. Warty was pretty darn stable. I didn't find Hoary Hedgehog to be old at all, and as for Dapper, well, I had more trouble with Dapper than I did with Hoary, and it wasn't until very recently that I had all the Dapper kinks worked out.

Has the ubuntu.com website been updated to reflect the release schedule? Last time I looked there was some vague explanation about what LTS is, and Edgy was merely called a 'release.'

If it's a testing release, f'n call it 'Testing' and be done with it, and don't just call it a 'release.' Some of us are still stuck in the 'predictable releases every six months' frame of mind, y'know.

I guess the condensed version is 'try to explain it without being a smartass.'

[handy]

I like Edgy a lot, but on my main machine I have a keyboard & mouse problem that is still here 3 weeks down the track, so I have gone back to Dapper.

I expect I'll stay with Dapper for another year or so. Fortunately I like Dapper too...

I'm running gNewSense on my other machine, I may experiment on that one but keep the main machine on version's that I'm sure of in future.

[mips]

I like Edgy a lot, but on my main machine I have a keyboard & mouse problem that is still here 3 weeks down the track, so I have gone back to Dapper.

I expect I'll stay with Dapper for another year or so. Fortunately I like Dapper too...


I'm in the same boat. I will test Feisty on a seperata partition when it comes out. If it works I'll use it, if not I'll bin it.

[mediax]

I upgraded to Edgy hoping it might improve some video issues I was having with Dapper - but on the basis that I was willing to reinstall Dapper as necessary.

The upgrade worked flawlessly, my video issues have practically disappeared and I've not come across any unwanted side effects (yet!) so I am one happy bunny. :KS

Overall I like Edgy and feel it's an improvement on Dapper.

[Malta paul]

I have had no problems upgrading from Dapper to Edgy. I first backed up my files, formated my disk and installed Edgy clean. Then I customized the set up with codecs using 'Automatix', mounted my second disk M$ partitions and now everything runs great it is also very Stable. So a big thank you, Mark and all the Ubuntu developers:)

[doobit]

I still can't understand why so many people are having problems with Edgy. I installed it from the alternate install CD (I have a separate /home) and it worked great. The computer it's on is a fairly old one (Gateway2000 mother board in a new case) and the hard drive is recycled from another old computer. In fact this is a Frankenstein monster of a computer, and Edgy just works great on it.

[todoporron]

I did it, no complains at all. Great job from the developers, thanks a lot

[ciscosurfer]

Dont dist-upgrade to Edgy. Do a clean install. You could use bittorrent to get the .iso and install it faster than it would take to dist-upgrade.This is exactly what I recommend doing if you want to 'upgrade' to Edgy -- burn a fresh ISO and install it. Don't go upgrading your system from Dapper to Edgy through the update manager -- headaches abound.

Consequently, I've done both: update manager and fresh install. Both worked seamlessly for me. But I know this hasn't been the case for some. So, again, if you want Edgy, save your important data to disc, and install a fresh copy of Edgy. It just works a little better that way. ;)

[handy]

I still can't understand why so many people are having problems with Edgy. I installed it from the alternate install CD (I have a separate /home) and it worked great. The computer it's on is a fairly old one (Gateway2000 mother board in a new case) and the hard drive is recycled from another old computer. In fact this is a Frankenstein monster of a computer, and Edgy just works great on it.

The problem can be the installation method, though many have trouble free upgrades.

I personaly never upgrade on any OS, it leaves more room for complications in my opinion, also using a separate /home makes for a much smoother experience when installing a new version or linux disto' I agree.

The major reason for some having problems with Edgy or Dapper or whatever, comes down to the almost infinite combinations of hardware that people are using. Some are perfectly suitable to Edgy for instance (like my old amd 2200 xp box) others are problematic.

The hardware is the key to the vast majority of incompatibilities IMHO.

Many hardware manufacturers won't open their driver code to the public, that's why we have so many wireless problems, dial-up modem problems & on it goes.

This makes the job of the developers so much harder, they have to reverse engineer which can be incredibly time consuming, & testing your work against the myriad hardware combinations pre-release is impossible.

Truly it is a miracle that our OS's work at all!

Hats off to the developers I say.